First sip brings dense sweet malts upfront with caramel and fruits rolling across the tongue. Earthy accents roll in that get caught up by citrus and pine laden hop oils. Bitterness kicks in and provides good balance with the sweet malts. Quite a big malty body for an imperial IPA and not what I was expecting.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with a good creaminess. This brew goes down smooth and is easy to drink for a DIPA. The hop punch isn't quite there for me and this end up as a more malt forward brew. Overall though it's a tasty brew and I'm glad to try my first McNeill's, thanks to warriorsoul.

A bomber poured into a tulip. Cherry amber color with a thick, tan, meringue-like head. Good looking beer, except the head dwindled very rapidly. A bit of lacing. Fairly sharp citrus aroma with a little sweet malt. Predominately grapefruit taste, very hoppy, little bit of malt. A mostly balanced mouthfeel. I knocked down the drinkability a little. The alcohol, while not noticeable, certainly showed some effect. Next time I'll share the bomber.

22 oz bottle. Odd, finding this one in Knoxville. Pours a cloudy copper body with a small beige head that leaves some very sticky lace.

Aroma of melted caramel, pine hops, and orange marmalade.

Mouthfeel reveals a thick and chewy medium body with a creamy carbonation.

Taste has a lot of chewy caramel and the maltiness prevails to the finish. Hops are up to the challenge and serve up a pine hop bitterness to balance. Citrus marmalade notes are present all the way through and contribute a thick bittersweet character. Hops segue into a bitter and dirty earthiness toward the finish.

The beer pours an orangish-amber color with a white head. The aroma is piney hops with some caramel and toffee notes. The flavor is piney and earthy hops with caramel malt. Medium bitterness. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

This is a very bitter and tart hop flavor, very-upfront, dry leaves and fresh acorn's. Medium to high heat adds with the tart fruit flavor with pineapple and slight strawberries. A hearty grain and malt lingers on the lips. The finish is herbal, earthy and bitter, slightly sweet malt and rather well-rounded. Perhaps a bit too much Pineapple flavor popping out of the hops, and the fruits are bit flat and too much heat.

Bottle from Premiere. In your face malts and hops, yet still drinkable, that's McNeill's. Some pineapple in addition to the citrus of the hops. Nice blend of malts which were both British and American and a full mouthfeel.Golden colour, small amount of head and barely perceived aromas.

The beer is a light golden brown color, with a short off-white head that fades quickly and leaves a bit of lace on the glass.

The aroma is of caramelized malts, fruity citrus and a good amount of piney hops.

taste starts a bit muted with sweet malts, caramel and then kicks it with piney hops. the bitterness lingers with a sharp alcohol burn on the aftertaste. not real well balanced.

medium body, medium carbonation, finish is slightly sticky.

a little too creamy on the feel and the boozy burn is a little too evident for my preference. good representation of style but I probably wouldn't drink with a pizza next time. would rather sip a little slower on its own. it's a one and done beer for me.

On tap @ McNeill's Brewery (Brattleboro, VT) on 2/20/11. Served in a pint glass.

Pours a slightly hazed copper, with a thin creamy head of eggshell-white foam. This retains with a thin filminess that stays a bit more robust around the edges, ringing the sides of the glass with some rich sticky lacing. The aroma smells of grapefruit, pine, and some light spice. A sticky feeling backing of tropical fruit, caramel, and bread give this some balance. This is definitely heavy with the hops but leans a little more towards the sweet sides of things in the nose overall.

The taste is bitter with a straight up grapefruit and pine bite that rips the tongue. This is tempered some by a sweet combination tropical fruit and bready sugars. The finish is dry and piney, with a pithy bitterness that hangs heavy on the palate. The mouthfeel is fuller bodied, with a sharp prickly feel that blows up maybe a bit too much in the mouth. There is some underlying slickness present but this is bordering on being a little over carbonated at times. I will say that alcohol is well hid and compliments that syrupy texture that eventually starts to envelope the feel.

I seem to remember liking this out of the bottle a bit more but this overall wasn't bad. As this warmed, it became bitter, thick, and syrupy with enough of a beefy power to it to give this some attitude. I was a little shaky on this pint to start but it won me over a bit more by the end.

From the 1 pt. 6 fl. oz. bottle with no expiration date or lot code noted. Sampled on Aug. 2,2009. It pours a somewhat cloudy amber-copper with a decent foamy head that dissipates slowly but never quite goes away. For an IPA, the aroma is subtle with hops. You know they are in the brew but it is not an overwhelming sensation. The mouthfeel is kind of smoothly creamy with a medium texture. Bitter hops are much more bold in the taste with a very sweet malty chaser. This is a hearty and enjoyable IPA.

A: The double IPA (screw you Imps!) is golden and coppery, barely translucent thanks to a pervasive haziness. Another impressive head, over two fingers, has left thick lace throughout the glass.

S: An excess of citrus along with vegetal greenness, this DIPA seemingly has it all. The citrus is aggressive, bitter with orange and grapefruit. A nice bite that has an abundance of caramel under the surface.

T: Pleasantly hoppy, this ale doesn't lack for bite. The citrus is strong, a resounding taste that brings plenty of green leafiness in the finish. The vegetal flavor of the hops is pronounced, taking over most all aspects. Caramel malts linger around, but the hops steal the show for both good and bad. The vegetal presence, I'm not so keen on; the citrus sharpness I am.

M: The mouthfeel is loaded with hops, some fresher from the vine than others. The vegetal leafiness that pervades the ale lends a syrupy bitterness.

D: A bold IPA that doesn't shy away from its hoppiness. I'd say that I'm 4 for 4 on McNeill's beers. A bold hoppy flavor that strays at times but generally stays on course.

On tap at Winter Warmer: Poured a deep orangey color ale with a nice foamy head. Aroma consists of citrus hops with nice resin and piney notes also detectable. Taste is also a complex mix between some notes of citrus hops with some resin notes which is well balanced by a semi-sweet caramel malt backbone. Floral notes are very nice. Body is quite full with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. I really enjoyed this one.

A very cloudy and dark amber hue with a two finger eggshell white head. Webby lacing is left behind as the head settles to a pillowy cap.

A very crisp and clean hop aroma, not loaded with an overwhelming mount of bitterness. The malts are pretty tame as well.

The hops have a good bitterness to them, but not backed up by as much flavor. There's a minty quality to them, along with a little citrus. The malts have a little bit of a toasted characteristic. Full bodied.

This one missed the mark in my book. Not bad, but it's missing some flavor behind the bite of the hops.

22oz BomberA) Pours with a two finger head. Creamy with some big bubbles. Lacing is sticky. Hazy and amber in color.S) Grapefruit. Peach. Earthy spice. Fairly light aroma overall.T) Sweet caramel up front. Then moves to a mild hop bite. A lingering hop zing and alcohol in the finish.M) Crisp. Medium bodied with some girth. Light syrupy feel.D) A decent imperial IPA, but not a standout for this beer drinker.

I had at d.b.a. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.A- Goldish brown in color, it has a white foamy head that leaves some lacing.S- It has a sweet caramel scent to it.T- It's very fruity and sweet. There's a smooth caramel aftertaste, but the front is dominated by a malty citrus. But there is a good balance, thankfully.

A: The beer is clear amber in color and has a light amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a finger high beige head that died down very slowly and left some bubbles on the surface and a thick ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass.S: There are aromas of pine resin hops in the nose along with some notes of citrus.T: There are flavors of citrus and pine resin hops in the taste, which are relatively well balanced by the underlying malts. The beer has a moderate amount of bitterness.M: It feels medium-bodied and slightly crisp on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.O: The beer tastes like it’s somewhat strong but for the most part the alcohol is well masked from the taste.